Who hasn’t heard the cliché: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. Knowing people is important. After all, if people don’t know you it doesn’t matter how much you know.
However, there is an even more important ingredient for success than knowing people. It is called: standing for something. Without a clear positioning and a relevant brand promise what you know or who you know won’t take you very far.
Standing for something comes first. Everything else follows. Maybe it’s too long to print on a bumper sticker, but it fits nicely on a T-Shirt:
It’s not what you know
It’s not who you know
It’s what you stand for